He and Him, and Her

Being on the same team as Sasuke-kun was one thing.

But to actually be on the same team as Naruto-kun!?

Isn't this just too blissful?

Really! Truly!

It's just too unfair!!!

In that moment, those girls all wished they could pounce on Sakura Haruno just to vent the frustration and resentment bubbling inside them.

Even Ino, who had long known she had no chance and was destined to be teamed with Shikamaru and Choji, looked at her former best friend Sakura with gritted teeth. How did that saying go? In the face of "love," girls' "friendship" was incredibly fragile.

Sitting not far away, Hinata Hyuga also wore an expression of obvious disappointment.

So, I really can't be on the same team as Naruto-kun?

The girl's deeply dejected mood and her tightly intertwined hands said it all.

Of course, Hinata didn't know.

Her homeroom teacher, Iruka, had actually tried to see if he could place her and Naruto on the same team before graduation. Whether it was because of the unusual attention Iruka had noticed Naruto paying to Hinata over the past six years, or because of the answers he had seen Hinata write during a special lesson, Iruka had reason to believe that putting Hinata and Naruto on the same team would be a very good thing.

However, in the end, this idea could not be put into practice.

Not to mention the reaction from the Hyuga Clan.

Naruto's team placement had been directly ordered by the Third Hokage long before.

This caused Iruka's plan to die in the cradle, leaving him no way to realize it.

He could only follow the established plan and place Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura on the same team.

This was also a point of slight regret for Iruka.

On the other side, the three members assigned to the same team also displayed different expressions at this moment.

As mentioned before, Sakura Haruno had a very simple and direct look of excitement.

She was teamed with two classmates whose comprehensive grades were at the very top of the class, and she was even on the same team as her beloved Sasuke.

Sakura's expression and mood at this moment could no longer be described by simple words like "happy" or "joyful." She wanted to burst out, yet she wanted to restrain herself to maintain the image of a demure girl—it was truly difficult for Sakura.

Naruto, meanwhile, looked calm and composed. Since he had known about it for a long time, there was nothing to be surprised about; if an unexpected team assignment had occurred, that would have piqued his interest.

As for Sasuke, as previously mentioned, he didn't care at all who his teammates were, as long as they didn't get in his way, then there was no problem. When Iruka announced the team members, Sasuke still wore an indifferent expression. His brows only twitched slightly when he heard Naruto's name, but that was all. This was only because Naruto's performance over the past six years at the Ninja Academy had been outstanding, even threatening him during one or two practical exercises.

As for the aforementioned Sakura Haruno, she didn't cause the slightest ripple in Sasuke's heart.

What Sasuke cared about most right now was who the jonin leader of his team was, whether they were qualified to be his captain, and whether they could guide him to become stronger. This was what Sasuke cared about most. Five years had passed since the Night of the Massacre, but in these five years, Sasuke had spent almost every night in nightmares, even waking up in a cold sweat several times after dreaming again of his parents being killed by his own brother's hands.

Five years!

It had been five whole years!

He had finally graduated from the Ninja Academy.

Sasuke was desperate to become stronger and immediately follow in the footsteps of that damned traitor.

Find him!

Ask him clearly why!

Then kill him!

To honor his parents and all his clansmen.

It could be said that this was one of the two ambitions deep in Sasuke's heart that would never change or waver, and it would remain his top priority until death. As for the other, it was naturally the restoration of the Uchiha Clan. He had once been the young master of the Uchiha, a clan renowned not only in the Hidden Leaf Village but as the greatest clan in the ninja world. Sasuke took pride in this, and naturally, he intended to revitalize his family in the future.

Therefore, compared to teammates, which Sasuke viewed as trivial matters, he was far more concerned with who his team leader would be!

Was they strong enough?

After announcing the members of Team 7, the next team, Team 8, was also worth noting.

At the very least, Naruto was very concerned.

Because this team included Hinata Hyuga.

And the other two members paired with her.

It was exactly the same as in the original story.

Kiba Inuzuka of the Inuzuka Clan and Shino Aburame of the Aburame Clan.

Although Naruto felt a little regretful in his heart that he couldn't be on the same team as Hinata, seeing that her teammates were still Kiba and Shino, he quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Although Kiba Inuzuka liked to brag sometimes and seemed unreliable or even a bit of a slacker, whether based on the plot of his past life or his six years of interaction in this life, Naruto knew very well that he was a very honest person—not pretentious, not hypocritical, and capable of treating others with sincerity. As for Shino, it went without saying; he was just a stoic with some communication difficulties (perhaps?).

Seeing that Hinata's teammates were still these two, without any deviation from the original story, Naruto felt at ease. Moreover, following this trend, the jonin instructor for Team 8 should still be that Kurenai Yuhi, who was a rare female ninja among the jonin.

Moving past these two teams, the remaining team members announced by Iruka, with the exception of the fixed Ino-Shika-Cho trio forming Team 10, were all purely background characters with almost no role in the original story.

It was almost certain that among the dozen or so teams in this year, only Team 7, Team 8, and Team 10 were led by jonin, while the rest were all led by chunin. While the original story didn't mention this, based on Naruto's own judgment, this should be the case. Reasonably speaking, among the rest of his classmates, there were no geniuses or special individuals worth the Third Hokage dispatching a jonin to lead.

After Iruka finished announcing the final team composition and went over a few necessary reminders, he walked straight out of the classroom, leaving the time to the various team leaders and these newly minted Genin.

It was only after Iruka left the classroom that the wait began.

One after another, ninjas wearing the standard-issue gear—which only those at the rank of Chunin or higher in the Hidden Leaf Village were qualified to wear—arrived in the classroom to collect the teams they were assigned to lead. Essentially, the team leader would walk in, call out a number, and the members of that team would stand up in unison and follow the leader out.

Although their uniforms were identical, making it impossible to tell whether they were Chunin or Jonin, Naruto's current perception led him to believe that these people were all Chunin.

After all, their presence was not particularly powerful.

Having faced Mizuki head-on when he had erupted with power as if he were on adrenaline, Naruto possessed at least that much judgment.

It might not be perfectly precise, but it was likely close enough.